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Combinatorics Difficulty 8.4 Shortlist Prove it Romania

Determine the largest integer rr satisfying the following condition: Amongst every five 500-element subsets of the set {1,2,,1000}\{1, 2, \dots, 1000\}, there exist two sharing at least rr elements.

Solution

The required integer is r=200r = 200. To prove it, we first show that, amongst every five 500-element subsets of {1,2,,1000}\{1, 2, \dots, 1000\}, there are two sharing at least 200 elements, and then provide an example of five such every two of which share exactly 200 elements.

The first part is a special case of the lemma below.

Lemma. Let nn be an integer greater than 1, let S1,,SnS_1, \dots, S_n be subsets of a finite set SS such that S1++SnS|S_1| + \dots + |S_n| \ge |S|, and let NN be one of the closest integers to
σ=S1++SnS12. \sigma = \frac{|S_1| + \dots + |S_n|}{|S|} - \frac{1}{2}.
Then SiSjN(2σN)n(n1)S|S_i \cap S_j| \ge \frac{N(2\sigma - N)}{n(n-1)} |S| for some distinct indices ii and jj.

Proof of the lemma. Let χi:SZ\chi_i : S \to \mathbb{Z} be the characteristic function of the set SiS_i: χi(x)=1\chi_i(x) = 1 if xSix \in S_i, and χi(x)=0\chi_i(x) = 0 otherwise; clearly, xSχi(x)=Si\sum_{x \in S} \chi_i(x) = |S_i|. Let further χ:SZ\chi : S \to \mathbb{Z}, χ=χ1++χn\chi = \chi_1 + \dots + \chi_n, so χ(x)\chi(x) is precisely the number of SiS_i containing xx, and xSχ(x)=i=1nSi\sum_{x \in S} \chi(x) = \sum_{i=1}^n |S_i|.

Next, fix an element xx of SS and write
(χ(x))2=(i=1nχi(x))2=i=1n(χi(x))2+21i<jnχi(x)χj(x)=i=1nχi(x)+21i<jnχi(x)χj(x)=χ(x)+21i<jnχi(x)χj(x), \begin{aligned} (\chi(x))^2 &= \left(\sum_{i=1}^{n} \chi_i(x)\right)^2 = \sum_{i=1}^{n} (\chi_i(x))^2 + 2 \sum_{1 \le i < j \le n} \chi_i(x)\chi_j(x) \\ &= \sum_{i=1}^{n} \chi_i(x) + 2 \sum_{1 \le i < j \le n} \chi_i(x)\chi_j(x) = \chi(x) + 2 \sum_{1 \le i < j \le n} \chi_i(x)\chi_j(x), \end{aligned}
to get 1i<jnχi(x)χj(x)=12χ(x)(χ(x)1)=12(χ(x)k)(χ(x)k1)+k(χ(x)k+12)\sum_{1 \le i < j \le n} \chi_i(x)\chi_j(x) = \frac{1}{2}\chi(x)(\chi(x) - 1) = \frac{1}{2}(\chi(x) - k)(\chi(x) - k - 1) + k\left(\chi(x) - \frac{k+1}{2}\right), for any integer kk. Since χ\chi is integer-valued, the first summand in the last expression above is non-negative, so
1i<jnχi(x)χj(x)k(χ(x)k+12),kZ. \sum_{1 \le i < j \le n} \chi_i(x) \chi_j(x) \ge k \left( \chi(x) - \frac{k+1}{2} \right), \quad k \in \mathbb{Z}.
Consequently,
1i<jnSiSj=1i<jnxSχi(x)χj(x)=xS1i<jnχi(x)χj(x)xSk(χ(x)k+12)=k(σk2)S,kZ. \begin{aligned} \sum_{1 \le i < j \le n} |S_i \cap S_j| &= \sum_{1 \le i < j \le n} \sum_{x \in S} \chi_i(x) \chi_j(x) = \sum_{x \in S} \sum_{1 \le i < j \le n} \chi_i(x) \chi_j(x) \\ &\ge \sum_{x \in S} k \left( \chi(x) - \frac{k+1}{2} \right) = k \left( \sigma - \frac{k}{2} \right) |S|, \quad k \in \mathbb{Z}. \end{aligned}
Since kk(σk/2)k \mapsto k(\sigma - k/2), kZk \in \mathbb{Z}, achieves its maximum at k=Nk = N, the conclusion follows by considering an intersection SiSjS_i \cap S_j, i<ji < j, of maximal cardinality.

Notice that equality in the last inequality above forces each element of SS to be covered by exactly NN or exactly N±1N \pm 1 of the SiS_i. This remark turns out to be quite useful in constructing the desired example.

Finally, to provide an example of five 500-element subsets of {1,2,,1000}\{1, 2, \dots, 1000\} every two of which share exactly 200 elements, consider first the following five 5-element subsets of {1,2,,10}\{1, 2, \dots, 10\}:
A1={1,2,3,6,8},A2={1,2,5,7,10},A3={1,4,5,6,9},A4={2,3,4,7,9},A5={3,4,5,8,10}. \begin{aligned} A_1 &= \{1, 2, 3, 6, 8\}, & A_2 &= \{1, 2, 5, 7, 10\}, & A_3 &= \{1, 4, 5, 6, 9\}, \\ A_4 &= \{2, 3, 4, 7, 9\}, & A_5 &= \{3, 4, 5, 8, 10\}. \end{aligned}
Since every two AA's share exactly two elements, the sets k=099(10k+Ai)\bigcup_{k=0}^{99} (10k + A_i), i=1,2,,5i = 1, 2, \dots, 5, provide the desired example.

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